Q: We received bare root plants last week (May 3rd) for my mom and she plans to take them back home with her to the west indies is not leaving until July. How do I care for them until then?
Answer: Adeniums plants (Desert roses) will last a few weeks out of soil without
problems if proper care is taken. July is about 2 months away which is too long to keep the adeniums bare root without nutrients. If you do not plant them I would use Dyna-Gro K-L-N or Dyna-Gro Grow treatment once a week (soak the adenium plants in a bucket for 30 minutes). This is the adenium desert rose plants heavy growing season (April through August) so they need nutrients. The soaking will give them time to hydrate a bit and recover faster when your plant the desert rose plants.
Q: Sorry I have optunia prickly pears not adeniums.
Answer: I would treat the prickly pear a bit different. When we propagate prickly per plants from pads we let the pads sit for 7 days once cut and then soak them in Dyna-Grow K-L-M for 30 minutes. Then we do not water the prickly pears optunia plants for 2..3 weeks after the soaking for force them to send out roots to try to find water. However, we do not let them go for over 3 weeks without any watering adding diluted Dyna-Gro to the liquid for the first 4 watering. Therefore, If you do not plant the optunia prickly pear plants until late July I would recommend dipping the prickly pear cactus in a Dyna-Gro grow once every week for 30 minutes to let them hydrate a bit.